Educating Data

While big data has already made significant advances in business and government, data analytics is also beginning to transform education. This O’Reilly report explores how the use of analytics has already helped several educational programs, such as personalized learning and massive open online courses (MOOCs), for students of all ages.

Of course, that’s only part of the story. As author Taylor Martin explains, researchers, educators, and private practitioners in the field have also run into several challenges in bringing the education field up to speed. Issues such as building data infrastructures, integrating data sources, and assuring student privacy still need to be resolved—as does the problem of teaching a new generation of data scientists about the challenges and opportunities unique to education.

Download this report and find out what educators and analysts have accomplished so far, and how they hope data analytics will help improve outcomes for students, parents, schools, and teachers in the near future.

Taylor Martin is a professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University. She researches how people learn from active participation, both physical and social. Currently on rotation at the National Science Foundation, Dr. Martin focuses on a variety of efforts to understand how big data is impacting research in education and across the STEM disciplines.